Tuesday, January 25, 2005IN-FUSIO Acquires Wireless Entertainment DeveloperLos Angeles-based IN-FUSIO, a developer of mobile entertainment titles for cellular phones, said today that it has acquired Tustin-based Thumbworks, a provider of applications and entertainment for the wireless industry. Terms were not disclosed. IN-FUSIO said that the acquisition would help it to offer a full portfolio in mobile entertainment.
posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005(Full story)
Metabasis Inks Agreement With MerckSan Diego-based Metabasis announced this morning that it is expanding its collaboration with Merck on a treatment for hepatitis C. The two companies are working together to develop a small molecule therapeutic for treatment of hepatitis C virus infections. Merck will continue to fund and collaborate on drug candidates based on Metabasis drug technology. Metabasis is public and was funded by Interwest Partners, ITOCHU, Maverick Capital, MPM Capital, Pan Pacific, Sprout Group, and Wellcome Trust.
posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005(Full story)
Movielink, Southwest Airlines Launch Downloading ServiceSanta Monica-based Movielink and Southwest Airlines said this morning that the two are launching a co-branded movie download service for Southwest customers. Southwest Airlines customers will have access to Movielink's broadband video-on-demand service and legal movie downloads through Southwest Airline's website. The new service is targeted at allowing Southwest customers to download movies onto their laptops before flights, to view while traveling. As part of the promotion, Southwest is offeri (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005(Full story)
Buy.com Files For IPO, AgainAliso Viejo-based Buy.com has filed for an IPO to raise up to $86M, in an interesting twist to a dot com era saga. Buy.com raised $182M in an IPO in February of 2000 in the heydey of the dot com era, and was taken private by founder Scott Blum at the end of 2001 for a bargain after the company's stock plunged. According to the company's S-1 filing, the company lost $15M on revenues of $290M in 2004, and had an accumulated deficit of $409.6M as of December 31, 2004. The company said that a portio (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005(Full story)
Internet Users Are Naive, Says ReportThe latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that Internet search engine users are naive when it comes to the objectivity and use of search engines. According to the report, which was released Monday, internet users are generally unsophisticated and why and how they use search engines, and are unable to distinguish between a "sponsored" search result which is a result of paid placement and unpaid results. The study showed that only one in six users can tell the diffe (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2005(Full story)